Flatlanders vs. Highlanders: The Story of the Blue Hills Group POTA

There is a lot of lore and legend surrounding the Blue Hills Reservation when it comes to amateur radio. Back in the olden days (November 2019 to be exact), New England Sci-Tech (parent company of the Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society aka STARS) partnered with the Blue Hills Observatory to install the W1UQ 146.985MHz repeater on one of its towers. The installation was preceded by a scouting mission by STARS members (including yours truly!) by both foot and vehicle to the 635 foot summit of Great Blue Hill, the highest coastal peak of Massachusetts. The photo on the left, one of my favorites, was taken by Rusty K1FVK. The one on the right, I took as part of this trip.

So when we decided to have a group Parks-On-The-Air event on a gorgeous 70F spring day, coinciding with the relaxing of the COVID mask mandates, at this special location, I was pleased, but hardly shocked, at the great turn out. From my vantage point, who wouldn’t want to be here?! Several area clubs had members in attendance, including STARS, Wellesley Amateur Radio Society (WARS), Long Island CW Club (LICW), Boston Amateur Radio Club (BARC), K1USN, and the Mystic Valley Amateur Radio Group (MVARG).

We commandeered a field at the Houghton’s Pond section of the Blue Hills. In fact, quite a crew were already gathered before AA1F and I managed to get there. The day’s plan was to arrive in the morning and play radio, have a Group POTA net on the W1UQ repeater at noon, and then those hiking up Great Blue Hill would begin their trek at 12:30pm. Once we made it to the Blue Hills Observatory on the peak, STARS member and BHO Education Specialist, Rusty K1FVK, would be available to give us a special radio-centric tour. And you know what? It all went according to plan! (Well, all except Jon KC1MII and George WG1YNA who needed to fix an unanticipated flat tire! Such good sports!)

Rob K2MZ’s impressive go-box attached to a Buddipole antenna was one of two CW stations. His rig consists of an ICOM 7300, a uhf/vhf radio, and an Elecraft just for kicks!

Rob W2ITT’s, joining us from Long Island, minimalist CW station is quite enviable. He used an Elecraft KX2 with its paddle attachment running to a linked dipole on a guyed mast. Even his chair was meant for portable ops!

Greg KC1NRJ and soon-to-be-ham (hint hint!) Julie operated from Greg’s brand new HF station. The Xiegu G90 transmitter was running into a Wolf River Coils antenna that Greg was getting on the air for the first time. Luckily, Rob WA1UMU and Leandra AF1R are experts in getting that particular model set up.

AA1F strung his usual 20M EFHW into the trees and ran it into his Yaesu FT-891. Mark Sr. KC1LBH and his family (Marc Jr. KC1LBI and another soon-to-be ham Diane) helped both AA1F and I get set up.

Jim WB4EJR and Barbara KC1KGS broke out their new Icom IC-705 forming a very slick station, complete with the Icom designer pack! Steve KC1MWF looked on.

Ed KO0HWK also used the IC-705, with his running on an OCF antenna in the trees. His station was compact and neatly wheelable.

Jon KC1MII and George WG1YNA set up a shortwave listening station.

And my station? I managed to have time to set up a 10M double bazooka in the trees and call CQ on 10M probably five times. With, well kinda obviously, no luck. BUT! It keeps with my goal of trying to use ham bands besides 20M and 40M.

And a few more images from the field…

Our Group POTA Net on the W1UQ repeater began promptly at noon with me as net control. We had 7 check-ins, Barbara KC1KGS, Steve KC1MWF, Jon KC1MII, Brian KA1PGI, Rob W2ITT, George KGlYNA, and Harry WA1VVH. All of them I could actually hear better without using my radio…thanks for playing along guys and gals! Regardless, it made the necessary transition to the hiking the Great Blue Hill part of the day. The hikers are in the picture below: me, Harry WA1VVH, Charlie WA3ITR, Brian KA1PGI, Ed KO0HWK, Dan W1DAN, Steve KC1MWF, Tate K1MKD, and Bree KM1CRO.

The grueling 1.5 mile walk up was met with quite a few adversities. There was geocaching…

…Picture posing…

…And some serious guarding of the (Eliot Tower on top of Great Blue Hill) fort…

It even rained long enough for me to feel it! But we did eventually make it to the Blue Hills Observatory. Where we learned that Barbara KC1KGS, Jim WB4EJR, and all but one of the Collinses including Senior KC1LBH, Junior KC1LBI, and Diane, had already beat us to the lookout. Yup, that’s them on top of the tower.

After freshening up a bit in the visitors center, Rusty K1FVK gave us a tour of the radio history of the Blue Hills Weather Observatory. This even included a look at RCA’s first commercially available transceiver , the ATR-219, which sold for $19.95 in the 1930s (wow, nearly a century ago!) and operated on the 5M band.

The grand finale of Rusty’s tour was the opportunity to transmit from the observation deck of the Blue Hills Observatory. Rusty had set up a Yaesu 817 to a 2M J-pole with a 2M band-pass filter. Calling CQ POTA on 146.52 led to a couple of qsos with traveling hams (thanks Ethan KC1OIP, Stu W1SHS, and others!), as well as a few park-to-parks. Aaron N1LUE was activating a POTA from Wachusett Mountain State Reservation K-4368, and Jeff AC1JR from Hammond Pond Reservation K-8410. Well, we were able to give them most of the contacts they needed for their activations! You can also see the area we hiked up from marked “Houghton Pond Field”.

What a wonderful radio day! Thank you for everyone who made the journey to the Blue Hills, to everyone who contacted us as POTA hunters, and to all of our friends who checked in with us while we were on our adventure! Thanks too to Rusty K1FVK & the Blue Hill Observatory for our special tour and New England Sci-Tech for the use of the W1UQ repeater.

I hear a lot of talk about what amateur radio is, what it isn’t, what it is supposed to be, and what it used to be. The chatter about ham radio dying, whose killing ham radio, and how it will no longer exist in some undefined near future. I hear an ever-shifting hierarchy of who a real ham is and who is not, and what a real ham does and what a real ham doesn’t.

I say, just look around. We are all real hams. We are all people who want to exist with one another, want to communicate effectively with one another, want to peacefully interact with one another, want to enjoy each other’s company — whether from a close distance or from afar, whether a lot or a little, whether complicated or simple. I just like being around you folks. Sharing this experience of life together, and the radio gives us an excuse to do just that.

And always remember, everyone is welcome to join us…when they want, how they want, where they want, and to the extent they want.

73s my friends!

KM1NDY